McKinney's Ridiculous Retraction

Yeah, that's the biggest non-apology "apology" that I've seen in a long time.

"There shouldn't have been any physical contact"? She "regrets its escalation"?

Bullshit.

She should have said, "I'm sorry I pushed and hit that Capitol police officer and otherwise made an obnoxious ass out of myself and tried to blame everyone but myself for the incident."

If she said that, then I might have taken her apology as something other than the obvious self-serving piece of spin that it is.

I wonder how many other six time members of Congress were stopped because they were not recognized by the Capitol Police?

(Yes, she should not have struck a cop. Not arguing that.)

So I guess with cops on the inside making complaints of racism and them stoping a six term member (that's twelve years, right?) who is a black woman doesn't necessisarly mean they were arresting her for trying to enter Congress while being black or anything.

I dunno. Any time Tom DeLay wants to call someone a racist ... I have to wonder. (Pot and kettle type of a thing.)

So yeah ... huge stink over a small black woman smacking a potentially racist cop for not recognizing a six-term member of Congress while the entire Republican party goes up in flames ... Abramoff, DeLay, Noe ... but hey, look over there! Black woman just hit a white cop! Clearly that's more important! Do not look at these rich white men as they go about getting richer and whiter!

Seriously, though, she shouldn't have hit him. But I wonder how different it must be to be an African-American woman in a white, patriarchal society? There is little entre, is there?

Sharona-

I think the racism charge is patently absurd in this situation. Come on, do you seriously think that this cop's sole purpose was to delay the woman for 30 seconds to show some identification when he couldn't identify her from behind? Is that how racism manifests itself these days, by 30-second stops to make sure they're authorized to go into a building where security should be extremely tight? If that's the way racism occurs these days, we've got nothing to worry about. The huge stink over this was caused by McKinney, who is nothing more than a race pimp and a fraud, trying to destroy the career of a cop who handled the situation absolutely appropriately in order to save her butt. The fact that Tom DeLay agrees with that doesn't change reality. DeLay is a fraud too, but the fact that he thinks the sky is blue doesn't make it green.

I think the only way Mckinney has gotten to the position she has is by riding on the race card and it sickens me. So many people have worked very hard to create diversity and by her actions it just delays the progress longer. Her apology of "there should not have been any physical contact" was a slap in the face to every American. Who does she think she is that she has the authority to hit people? Her actions were totally inapropriate! She has a bar room mentality and her aggression needs to be addressed legally.Our number one priority is the safety and the security of our representatives because they speak for us! They are one of our best defenses! I think the officer had every right to try and stop her from entering areas we hold dear to our country. It sickens me that she shouts racial profiling! Im tired of this racist behavior! I hope the grand jury sends her a message that this will not be tolerated.She should be treated as any other citazen that assaults people! She should be asked to leave office because she is suppose to be a role model and not show hatred! She is creating a rift in our country by spreading her poison and that should not be allowed. I feel that the only way to keep people from claiming racial profiling in the future would be to have ALL REPRESENTATIVES entering the congressional building Without their Congrssional pins show ID's from now on, No matter if they are recognized or not. I know this may seem a bit of an inconvenience, but it will eliminate the uncalled for black eye that innocent people have recieved from Mckinney and maybe it will keep Mckinneys big lying mouth shut!

"You're a buffoon and a liar and you should resign from Congress immediately."

Oh, please.

Maybe she went over the line and maybe she didn't -- I doubt anyone posting here saw it, so all we know is he-said, she-said. The bottom line is the any capital police officer should recognize every member of Congress (yes, every one of them) and observe the Constitutional requirement that they not interfere with a member on his or her way to a session.

Of all the reporters in this sorry episode, the one that surprised me the most was Soledad O'Brien. That lady has a set of balls on her. Perhaps Wolf Blitzer could borrow them some time.

McKinney was stupid and acted foolishly and should have recognized that shortly after she hit the officer and apologized. Her continued dramatization of the facts of the incident were crass and disturbing.

She should be punished appropriately by her collegues (censure?) and go through the legal process to determine the appropriate outcome of the incident. Having said all of that, I don't think she shouldn't resign her position at this point.

With all due respect to the officer, this incident just doesn't rise to the level of resigning her position. She didn't do anything to defraud her constituents or betray their best interests. That should be the standard to determine if a political representative should resign. She had a stupid personal incident she should face the consequences personally. I don't think those consequences should include losing her office unless her constituents vote her out of it.

This outrage here strikes me as somewhat odd. Cynthia McKinney comes from an area that still suffers from the lingering effects of racism, like it or not. And some of that comes not from redneck southerners, but from republican transplants that pander to the lingering racism of some of their constituents. It should come as no surprise to anyone that she might think she had been singled out for that reason. I think some of this outrage is an attempt to show that some of us here are not politically motivated when we attack real crooks who happen to be republican: see, we also attack those nasty democrats when they do bad things. But, please, this is a tempest in a teapot. Move on, people.

Mark Paris wrote:

The bottom line is the any capital police officer should recognize every member of Congress (yes, every one of them) and observe the Constitutional requirement that they not interfere with a member on his or her way to a session.

And if they don't, because one of them is walking in the other direction and has just gotten a haircut, the legislator gets to hit them? Sorry, I don't buy it. When the officer called to them and said hold on, stop, you didn't go through the metal detectors, a sane and rational person would have stopped, turned around and said, "I'm sorry, here's my ID, I'm a Congresswoman." At very worst, perhaps a snippy comment about why they didn't recognize her. A sane and rational person doesn't swing around and hit the cop, which is what all pretty much agree happened at this point, hence her apology.

This outrage here strikes me as somewhat odd. Cynthia McKinney comes from an area that still suffers from the lingering effects of racism, like it or not.

And therefore, she is excused from all requirements of rational behavior and she gets to hit cops when they ask her to stop?

It should come as no surprise to anyone that she might think she had been singled out for that reason.

Even if she really believed that (and I don't), there is a sane way to handle it and an insane way to handle it. The sane way would be to show the cop her ID and then perhaps write a letter to his boss complaining that he didn't recognize her, or see if there was anything at all in the officer's background that might suggest this as the reason or whether it might suggest that he singled her out because she didn't go through the metal detectors and he was just doing his job. To assume that and then wheel around and hit the guy? That's insane.

I think some of this outrage is an attempt to show that some of us here are not politically motivated when we attack real crooks who happen to be republican: see, we also attack those nasty democrats when they do bad things.

If that's aimed at me, you would be wrong. In fact, I had made a note to write this post about McKinney before I wrote the the post about Bush. I really think some of my readers are going to be shocked if the Democrats ever take control of the White House again and see that I'm just as hard on them as I am on the Republicans. Then the simpleminded partisans from that side will all assume that I'm a right wing Republican just like all the simpleminded partisans from the other side now assume that I'm a left wing liberal.

I couldn't believe this one either. How pretentious must a person be to think that they can not be "inconvienced" with security check when they forgot their identification? Get over yourself McKinney; it's the guys job to make sure people don't sneak into the place.

My guess is that it was all caught on video and they are not releasing it so as not to embarrass her.

She sure reversed herself quickly.

Please, everyone. Cynthia McKinney is obviously too important to have to follow the rules like the rest of us.

FYI, if an unidentified male ever hits a cop, he'll end up face down and handcuffed before he knows what hit him. I don't know what "-ism" that falls under, but it's a fact and it should not be limited to men.

Does she allege that the cop tackled her? Hit her across the back of the knees with his nightstick? Fondled her? No, he apparently touched or grabbed her arm. And here is why: there are all kinds of crazies trying to get into government buildings.

She blew yet another opportunity to be gracious, to make a friend of the guard, to improve race relations (if that were really a factor).

I wouldn't care if the guard was a racist - he was doing his job. I don't care - even a little - that she comes from the South; pulling out that race card because of an ID check sets race issues BACK, not forward. Save it for bad schools and predatory loan agencies.

Thanks so much, Cynthia, for pulling the spotlight off Tom Delay onto yourself. Next time I hope the cop Tasers your ass.

It seems that everyone agrees what happened without any evidence other than partisan accusations. Let's see the video, please.

And, no, I don't think she should have hit anyone, if, indeed, she did.

But, still, this outrage ... it still seems strained to me.

Mark-

If you think I would react any differently if it had been a Republican representative who did the same thing, you're quite mistaken.

I wasn't very sypathetic of McKinney's plight initially either, but there's a good argument for why she's in the right here.

Two points, one trivial, one not. Trivial first.

Ed, you wrote that Rep. McK should resign because she is a "buffoon and a liar." If we demanded that all Congresspersons meet that standard to keep their seats, neither the House nor the Senate could muster a quorum.

Secondly: I have a hard time understanding why Congresspersons should be exempt from the metal detectors, why they shouldn't have to undergo the same security procedures as anyone else entering the Capitol. The members [both houses, both parties] have a long history of exempting themselves from the same rules, and occasionally, laws they impose upon the rest of us. With so many Tribulation, Rapture, Second-Coming-Is-Near fundagelicals now serving in Congress, seems to me there is a not entirelly unreasonable possibility that one of them may someday wake up convinced that God has commanded him to hasten the Second Coming by blowing up the chamber mid-session. Why any of them is excused from going through the security provisions escapes me.

Ed, you've made the point that McKinney is a buffoon and a jerk. Sure. But you haven't really made the point that she should resign.

The standard in the House these days is - even if you've been indicted already, you still don't have to resign. The Ethics committee has closed up shop completely. Isn't it a bit silly to be worrying about one congresswoman acting like a prima donna, when the entire institution is festering with corruption?

Perhaps we could refocus our attention on the President who continues to run an administration that is intentionally and unapologetically breaking the law?

Maybe she's a buffoon and a liar, but resign? No. I have read a number of reports of the incident, and it appears that she was initially assaulted by the Capitol Hill policeman, after which she did whatever she did to the CH policemen (what she did was under dispute). Resign? No.

Let me try to explain what I'm talking about. First, Ed, I was not trying to be critical of the way you deal with issues. I have been reading your blog for a while and I think your positions are at least considered and rational, even if I don't agree with all of them. So I was not implying that you are partisan in your commentary. I am just trying to understand why people do things. Why did George Bush invade Iraq? Why do IDers ignore all the evidence? Why did Cynthia McKinney react the way she did? Why were your comments and the comments of others so harsh? Or why did they seem so to me? Sometimes the reasons people do things excuses them; sometimes they don't. But in any event, understanding the behavior can help us deal with problems.

So, why did McKinney behave the way she did?

There are two cultures in this country - at least two. For the sake of simplicity, call them black and white. By black culture I don't mean the way black kids dress or speak or sing. If you find a successful and successfully integrated black man, a man who wears the best suits, eats at the best restaurants, drives the best cars, plays golf with the rich and powerful, if you find such a man and find him in an honest mood, I think he will tell you that for all the success, the world is still different for him from the way it is for his white associates. People look at him at least a little differently and he sees a lot of the world a little differently. And that includes the way cops look at him and the way he looks at cops. Strangely enough, that includes both white and black cops. Denying this is just as irrational as denying evolution. The simple fact is that black people are still not fully integrated into this society, and it shows in the way cops treat black people. (Not that all of them treat white people all that well, either.) It shows in the way a lot of people think about black people. And it shows in the way a lot of black people thing about cops.

I don't know about how it is in the North, but I know about how it is in the South. After all, it wasn't until I was in junior high school that black kids could attend public schools with white kids. Even today, it is not uncommon to hear someone speak of a formerly respectable black person who gets into trouble by saying, "The n***** came out." You won't hear that when the TV reporter interviews them, but you will hear it spoken softly in the halls. You don't hear that about the respectable white people who get into trouble. For them, it's their own personal fault, not the fault of their race. While it's true that things have changed greatly and things are still changing for the better, it's also true that there is still some distance to go.

Cynthia McKinney may be a fool, a buffoon, a liar and any number of other bad things. But I think it's at least worth a few seconds of thought to try to understand why she might behave the way she does. And I'm not sure why everyone appeared to automatically assume that she was at fault. Unless that video has been cued up while I was away.

Andrew Wyatt wrote:

I wasn't very sypathetic of McKinney's plight initially either, but there's a good argument for why she's in the right here.

I read it and don't find it the least bit convincing, but at least it does lay out the basic facts of the case that everyone agrees on. Based upon those facts alone, I think my position is supported. Think about this for a moment. She rushes through a checkpoint, going around the metal detectors and momentarily waves her ID card at the officer. It is trivial to imagine how easily the officer might have missed seeing the card. If at the moment she rushes through, someone yells something and he turns his head for just a second in a natural response, all he sees when he turns it back is someone rushing away from the checkpoint when he didn't get to see who it was. So he says, "Ma'am, please stop, you didn't go through the metal detectors", or something to that effect (even she has alleged that he said anything racial, only that he told her repeatedly to stop). She knows that he's talking to her but she just keeps on rushing along. So he runs after her and grabs her arm from behind when he catches up to her, she knows it must be the cop, but she still wheels around and hits him in the chest. Now, is that the sane, rational way to handle a situation like this? Absolutely not. A sane, rational person would have stopped the first time he said to stop, pulled out her ID card and showed it to him, and been on her way in 10 seconds. Even if she was absolutely convinced that she was being harrassed - and bear in mind that there is not a shred of evidence that she was, only her assumptions, and the officer gets the presumption of innocence as well - she should still identify herself to him and then handle it by talking to his boss or filing a complaint, not by hitting the guy.

flatlander wrote:

Ed, you wrote that Rep. McK should resign because she is a "buffoon and a liar." If we demanded that all Congresspersons meet that standard to keep their seats, neither the House nor the Senate could muster a quorum.

Fair point, but I wouldn't mind seeing them all resign. :)

RickD wrote:

Ed, you've made the point that McKinney is a buffoon and a jerk. Sure. But you haven't really made the point that she should resign.

raj wrote:

Maybe she's a buffoon and a liar, but resign? No.

Oh, it's not just this incident that makes her a buffoon and makes me think she should resign (and bear in mind that I could probably make a case against half the members of Congress as well in this regard). For example, this is the woman who has spent years obsessing over trying to get the government to turn over their "secret files" on who "really killed" Tupac Shakur. For crying out loud, that's no better than someone trying to find out the "real truth" about Elvis' death. She's actually said that insurance companies knew about 9/11 in advance. She's said that Al Gore is a racist because she'd "never seen him with more than one black around him at a time" - never mind the fact that his campaign manager was black. Come on, how seriously can you possibly take this person?

Ed Brayton | April 8, 2006 12:15 PM

Irrespective of your list--much of which I was familiar with--the fact is that McKinney has been elected and re-elected by her district. So why should she resign if her district has apparently indicated that they want her there? I am not arrogant enough to purport to dictate who should represent voters in her district, any more than I am not arrogant enough to purport to dictate to the voters in North Carolina who should represent them in the Senate (referring to Jesse Helms, of course) or to the voters in South Carolina (referring to the late and unlamented Strom Thurmond). I could go on.

If the Democratic party wanted to get rid of her, they have a way of doing that: run somebody against her in the primary who has a credible chance of winning the nomination. Apparently, the party wants her there, or they don't have a credible candidate to run against her. Or maybe it doesn't care one way or another. I'd almost be willing to wager on the last.

She's actually said that insurance companies knew about 9/11 in advance.

Where did she actually say this, please?

Ampersand wrote:

Where did she actually say this, please?

In an interview on KFPA Pacifica Radio, she said:

"We know there were numerous warnings of the events to come on September 11... Those engaged in unusual stock trades immediately before September 11 knew enough to make millions of dollars from United and American airlines, certain insurance and brokerage firms' stocks. What did the Administration know, and when did it know it about the events of September 11? Who else knew and why did they not warn the innocent people of New York who were needlessly murdered?"

Okay, so that's a little nutty (although no nuttier than deciding that 9/11 means it's time to invade Iraq), but she didn't actually say the insurance companies knew of 9/11 in advance.

I took the "I've never known him to have more than one black person around him at any given time" to be not an accusation of general racism, but a reference to the belief that Clinton and Gore avoided being photographed with groups of black people during election season. The context was a lawsuit by 250 black secret service agents; McKinney was criticizing Gore for not commenting on the lawsuit.

Was McKinney's criticism fair? I don't know. But pointing out that Gore had a black campaign manager isn't a relevant rebuttal to McKinney's criticism; in fact, it misses the entire point of McKinney's criticism.

As for the main issue, it is obvious and undeniable that she shouldn't have hit the cop under any circumstances but self-defense,which this was not.

However, you seem to be assuming, without any evidence at all, that McKinney is lying or wrong when she says that she is picked out for this treatment more often than other congressfolk because she's black. But unless you think that racism never, ever happens, how you can so confidently dismiss her story? If she really is stopped more often than whites, and this has been going on year after year after year, then I can understand why she'd boil over and act inappropriately.

Ampersand-

I could go on for quite some time listing the loony things McKinney has said (and to be fair, I can do the same thing for many politicians). The bottom line for me on the claim of racism in this case is twofold in my view. First, she has no evidence that it was racially motivated and there are perfectly plausible explanations for how it could be totally unrelated to race. She doesn't have any evidence at all that this particular cop is a racist in general, much less that this particular incident was motivated by race, and she didn't have any evidence of it when she was on TV screaming that it was racist. Second, even if she sincerely thought it was racially motivated - and frankly, I think that's an excuse and not a reality - that would not justify her actions. Now, it's certainly possible that the whole thing happened because of racism. But I don't think you can either make or accept that explanation without actual evidence, of which she has none.